Have you ever done mehndi for a Chand Raat event? Well I have, in the past, about ten years ago, and I once swore I would never do one again. It seems that everyone wants henna, but no one wants to pay fair prices for it. I spent my first Chand Raat event endlessly justifying my prices to potential customers who were having none of it. They attempted to bully me into lower prices (it was beyond haggling; it was just mean), or to demand extra henna for free once their design was done or else they refused to pay anything. I was green and without strategy and was beyond taken advantage of. It seems that when everyone has an auntie who “knows how to do henna”, the service gets seriously devalued. There’s not really a distinction made between ugly henna that looks like a five year old could have done it using deathpaste (store bought chemical-laden “instant” mehndi cones) and true artistry accomplished using carefully prepared natural henna.
So what’s a henna artist to do? Just not show up for these huge events that, theoretically, should be one of the biggest markets for henna ever (with such very high demand)? Not take part in this beautiful celebration, which being a henna artist allows us access to that we might not otherwise have? That’s what I did for nearly a decade. I stayed home.
But this year I got asked to do a Chand Raat that happened to be beyond convenient. It seemed foolish to continue my no-Chand-Raat-events-because-the-devaluing-of-my-work-depresses-me stance. I was going to be in town for the biggest Chand Raat event in all of Connecticut; another event I was booked for in the next town over ended just 3 hours before this Chand Raat started. I thought, “Okay, it’s a decade later. Clearly I must have learned something in this time. I can handle it this time. I will strategize, and it will go better.”
Here are some of the things that I figured I needed to consider in creating my strategy:
1) When I say how much henna is “per hand”…I mean “per design on one side of the hand”… This is NOT what the Indian/Pakistani community in New England means by “per hand”. This point seems to be quite non-negotiable; I always lose these discussions
2) $10 per hand is considered cheap within this community, $25 per hand is considered fair, and $60 per hand is considered insanely and unforgivably expensive.
3) Normally at festivals, the hand designs I show (for ONE HAND on ONE SIDE) are $10-35. The average New England customer considers this a HUGE BARGAIN, and my prices are much lower than most. To the Indian/Pakistani community, this means the hands they want (the good ones, of course) are $35 per side, $70 per hand! Beyond unforgivably expensive.
4) I refuse to be bullied into lowering my prices to the same as those of unskilled, untrained, unpracticed people using crappy chemical-laden henna to do horrible trainwrecks of designs.
5) I want to leave happy, and I want the customer to leave happy.
So how can #5 be accomplished, given #1-4? Well, here is how my strategy plays out.
The main idea is to offer henna that I know I can do lightning fast, because it includes only elements that are incredibly time-efficient to draw, and motifs I am beyond extremely comfortable with. This way, I can offer options that look nice on the page, that people will be happy to pay for……but then I will complete them faster than the client could have ever imagined would be possible. The client already picked a price point they were happy with…it just so happens that they had no earthly idea of just how very little time it might take to execute.
As for the starting price point, I will not be offering henna for $10 “per hand” ($5 per side); that is the low end of prices for crappy work, and I do not offer crappy work. So I’m starting at $15 per hand; only slightly more than what people consider “bargain henna”. The designs will be simple, but they will be done well, with natural, healthy henna that will stain a gorgeous dark color and last a long time. People will hopefully be happy that there is a quite-cheap option available.
The choices need to be limited. I really do prefer to create custom designs for people off the top of my head; that way people get something that really suits them, and it stays interesting for me. But in this type of situation, where haggling over the price is the norm, to the point of it feeling abusive, nothing can remain open-ended, unfortunately. There will always be a questioning of whether the customer is really getting what they paid for – shouldn’t it be more? Can’t you add just a little more right here (for no extra pay, of course)? Nope, for this reason, the designs must be set in stone. What you see is what you get.
It shouldn’t take too much time to choose the design. Most people tend to spend about ten times as long looking for a design as I actually spend putting it on them, when they’re choosing from my standard festival books. This is not even remotely efficient, but I’m typically happy to trade efficiency for the customer having enough choices to feel like they really got *exactly* what they wanted. However, at a six hour event with a hundred or more attendees, half of whom are women who probably want henna, efficiency is key. So I have just three designs at each price point for this event. And it’s actually pretty clear which of the designs (whether it be one or two) are the best deal or prettiest within their price category; this makes the decision even easier (of course everyone will pick the pretty one).
As for the prices of the designs offered for the Chand Raat, they are very much discounted from my normal prices. The community is used to extremely cheap henna, and I am going to do my best to meet that expectation without disrespecting my art or myself. The fact that the volume will be so high should make up for the lower per piece costs, especially given that the designs offered are secretly insanely lightning fast. Prices can’t be this low at other times because there is basically never this type of demand for henna anywhere else. My $15 hands are two pieces that would normally fetch $10 each (so 25% off). My $22 hands are two pieces that would normally be $15-20 each (nearly 50% off) . The $30-per-hand designs would normally get $20-25 each. My $40 hands would normally get about $25-30 each side. My $22 and $30 hands are the ones I am hoping people will go for; I’d rather get more than $15 per person, so the $22 designs are obviously much better than the $15 ones, to encourage people to upgrade from the bare minimum, at least. The $30 hands feature elements that sometimes people have in mind that they really want (paisley, peacock, cuff, a fairly full looking wrist-to-finger strip), so they might be the most popular. The $40 hands have that “full hand” look, covering much more of the hand…but I’d MUCH rather do the far-quicker $22 and $30 hands…so honestly I have not made the $40 hands very attractive!
So, below, I offer you my geekily overthought Chand Raat mehndi design choices for 2011! If these design elements are not ones you are particularly quick with, feel free to use the logic outlined here to create your own offerings that you know you will be able to execute mind-bogglingly quickly.
I’ve been watching All American Muslim a bit. I like the show a lot so far. I like that it shows a wide variety of people with a wide range of perspectives on their religion. I think it is a good show and am so far pretty happy with the portrayal they are presenting. I’m not Muslim, but as someone who is not but has a best friend who is, I find the show respectful and thought-provoking.
And now for why I am actually posting this in my henna blog. I thought that Dearborn, Michigan would be an AMAZING place to be a henna artist. With all of the big Arab weddings, there must be a lot of henna going on! A lot of competition for gigs that makes the artists strive to be excellent to stand out! Right? Well, maybe not. Or maybe there is so much henna going on that no one sees fit to advertise at all. Or maybe everyone gets henna from family, and the idea of hiring a professional henna artist is not something that comes to people’s minds. But anyway, a Google search for “henna Dearborn Michigan” (even “henna Detroit”!) actually yields no first-page search results for actual artist homepages. I found this really surprising! So, I’m posting this blog in hopes that maybe a henna artist in Dearborn might see it. I’d love to hear about your experiences, and learn if you think the portrayal of your town on this show is an accurate and good one.
And if somehow people start to find this blog post when doing a search for henna in Dearborn, I do know some excellent artists who are elsewhere in Michigan, and would be happy to recommend them 
I was surfing around the internet, and was so pleasantly surprised to see this beautiful photo of the henna Selena Gomez got recently! It is very adorable, with her nickname “Sel” in cursive script with a little trail of stars.
Selena Gomez's henna body art : "Sel" with stars
I would like to make one thing very clear about this photo for people who may be searching for it on the internet and thus come across this blog. This photo was taken with the henna paste still on the skin. If you look carefully, you can see that there is a raised texture to the colored-in stars. Once this paste comes off, the design will be lighter in color – anywhere from caramel to coffee brown.
The amazing thing to me is that typically paste-on henna photos are taken right after the henna is applied, usually spontaneously. Paste-off henna photos are the norm for staged shots. So I’m guessing that this photo may be impromptu? Which just amazes me… that she can look this beautiful in what must be a fairly candid shot.
Thanks, Selena, for spreading the henna love!
If you ever want fancier, more artistic henna… I will be more than happy to hook you up
I love the way henna designs can be shaped by people to have whatever meaning they intend, and the way it helps create cultural bridges by bringing people together through the love of the artform. I think that Gina Wright’s Mehndi Moko project is a really great example of this!
Gina traveled all the way from New Zealand to give a really wonderful pair of presentations on Mehndi Moko at this year’s Henna Gathering. Mehndi Moko began as a cultural exchange between Maori and Hindu people in Rotorua, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Gina has combined traditional and contemporary aspects of Maori art and culture to the application of henna to the skin to create some very unique and beautiful designs, each with rich symbolism. Unlike traditional Maori Taa Moko permanent tattooing that has deep personal and genealogical meaning represented in each design, Mehndi Moko uses symbols like those for the Elements and Guardian Spirits that are intended to be replicated and shared by all.
I just created a new video showcasing some of Gina Motutara Wright’s designs, done at Rhode Island Pride:
http://www.youtube.com/hennabyheather#p/u/13/pxqSQFn0cX8
(Music by Dorian James)
The designs featured in this video are:
Hei Matau – fish hook, representing the wearer casting a line into the ocean, which can be taken literally, or metaphorically to mean they are casting a metaphysical line into the sea of success.
Kawakawa – heart-shaped leaves representing the healing kawakawa (kavakava) plant, a sacred herb to the Maori people, often consumed as tea. To be worn by a healer or anyone seeking healing energy.
I hate The Summer Self-Henna Dilemma.
Do I do something AWESOME for myself that I will think is really fun and a challenge to do, pretty to wear, and cool to get a photo of for my portfolio, which I wouldn’t have time to replicate in a festival setting if you begged me to?
Or do I do one of the traditional-but-simple bestsellers, to convince all the people stopping by the festival booth that they DEFINITELY want to upgrade from the simple little kanji or stars they originally had in mind?
Too often I go for the latter (because it works! and I need money!). Give me some ways to rationalize doing the former
Candied violets are a very special treat; in France they are considered a delicacy. Since violets grow quite easily, you can probably find some in your yard, a neighbor’s yard, or a nearby park or forest. These edible flowers come into bloom in April and May, and are at their peak for a brief while. Gather your violets while they are in full bloom, and then try crystallizing them, preserving them as fine and dainty candies!
We have tried a wide variety of methods for crystalizing violets. The best way, by far, is to use milk in a spray bottle, so that is the method we will explain
Along the way, we’ll also show you how some of the other methods failed….just so you don’t feel compelled to go out and waste some of your precious violets repeating our errors.
On with the success story!
Ingredients:
-Violet flowers
-Milk
-Caster Sugar
-Food coloring (optional)
Other supplies:
-Scissors
-Baking sheet
-Parchment paper (or wax paper in a pinch)
Step One: Gather your violets
Only gather violets (or any edibles!) from soil you know. It should be 100% free of pesticides and any other harmful chemicals, as you will NOT be washing the violets before you candy them.
Put violets into a bowl that is large enough to hold them without crowding, and which has a flat enough bottom that it won’t spill over when you set it down . (Like so many things, we learned this the hard way; if you spill your carefully gathered violets, you will be sad.)
Snip them close to the bottom of the stem, so you have a nice long handle for when you are working with them:
You may want to gather the leaves in the other half of your large, flat bowl. Violet leaves are also edible, and the young ones are very tasty in salads!
Step Two: Coat Your Voilets
There are many different methods suggested for coating violets so that the sugar will properly stick to them. The most popular are:
a) Brushing violets with egg whites – too tedious for words!
….we won’t even trouble you with a photo. Imagine brushing a tiny flower, petal by petal, while being careful to never touch it with your fingers….
b) Dipping violtets into milk or water – ugly results!
….We tried it; look how bad it was:
In process:
Dipping yields clumpy candied violets, where the petals are all stuck together:
Some sources suggest separating the petals with a toothpick after dipping. We find this beyond tedious; far worse, even, than brushing petals individually.
c) Dipping into egg whites – our second-favorite option
This is your best option if you do not have a perfect spray bottle ready to go. Here are in-process and results photos:
So the egg white dipping method is acceptable. We did find that it can sometimes yield syrupy, rather than crystalized, sugar after the violets are heated.
But our favorite method is:
D) Spritzing milk onto flowers with a fine mist spray bottle.
Just hold the flower by the stem, spray twice on the front, and twice (each time from a different angle, to ensure full coverage) on the back.
Step Three: Cover Your Violets with Sugar
Use caster sugar for best results. The finer the grain, the daintier the final candies.
You may want to try using colored sugar. Plain white sugar will give your violets a white coating that hides their violet-ness just a bit. Really bring out the violet by adding 2 drops of Neon Purple and 1 drop of Neon Turqoise food coloring to your sugar, which makes it a decidedly non-neon perfect violet shade:
To coat flowers in sugar :
-using stem, place face down in shallow, wide bowl of sugar.
-use other hand to place more sugar on top of the flower
-press on top of sugar to ensure that sugar sticks to petals well
-remove from sugar and place on baking sheet
Place violet face down on baking sheet (it rests most flatly this way), and then snip the stem away.
Repeat until you have coated all your flowers in sugar:
The dark violets have violet colored sugar on them, while the light ones have plain white sugar.
Step Four : Heat the Violets
Place your baking sheet on the bottom rack of your 200 degree F oven. Drying/crystallization takes about 35 minutes. Too little time, and the sugar will not properly stick together. Too much time, and it will become syrupy.
Step Five : Enjoy the Violets
Here are some ways to enjoy your candied flowers:
-As a beautiful topping for pastries (wedding cakes, petit fours, tea cakes, fancy cupcakes and more)
-On their own, especially right after you finish making them!
-As a light sweetener for your tea or coffee; how cute will it be to have pretty little flowers floating in your beverage? Especially useful when entertaining guests.
-Give them as gifts to people you really, really like! (There’s a *lot* of love and effort that goes into these special treats…)
The C-section rates (especially in Brazil) are currently so high that Latina (primarily Brazilian) immigrants covering up c-section scars are currently the #3 biggest group of potential clients who call me about individual henna appointments.
They follow only brides and people trying out tattoos. For women who had their babies abroad to be such a significant portion of the clients calling me, it is clear to me that this C-section trend is reaching epidemic proportions. And it is also pretty clear that these women believe that there is something wrong or ugly about having the scars. And it seems it also must be the case that somewhere they are seeing suggestions that henna is a great thing to try while your scar is still forming and it’s too early to get a tattoo. All of these things except the last one make me sad. I just think it is very odd that in what is quite a small portion of the population, so many women seem to have the idea that getting henna would be a great thing to cover up their cesarean section scars. It needs to be noted. It is worrisome. There are people who work on social policy looking into why this happens and what can be done about it – thank goodness.
Given that so many of my private clients are from Brazil, I am pretty glad that I can understand Portuguese pretty well, even if I do fumble something back in mostly-Spanish most of the time (with that and the client’s knowledge of English, it works out great).
Often they’re disappointed that the henna won’t look like a tattoo and isn’t available in a rainbow of colors… But when they understand that the henna will last so much longer than the other available options (which I do offer to them), they invariably choose that.
I am glad to fulfill what seems to be a strong desire for long-lasting, temporary body art for Brazilian immigrant women who had their babies back in Brazil… But given that Brazilian women are such a small percentage of the population in my area (even where there are many, many Portuguese-speaking people from the Açores and Cape Verde), it is so strange that women covering up C-section scars are such a significant portion of my individual appointments.
Some things to read:
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0102-311X2008001200020&script=sci_arttext
http://paa2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=50741
http://humanizebirth.blogspot.com/p/birth-in-brazil.html
Boldfacers.com decided to profile me for their website! View the whole story here:
http://boldfacers.com/index.cfm?page=profile&profile_id=290
Photos, video, tips, and article about Henna By Heather at boldfacers.com
What is Henna?
A plant that grows in the Middle East, northern India, and north Africa. Its leaves contain a natural dye, lawsone.
How long have you been doing Henna?
12.5 years
How did you hear about henna/ and when did you start doing your own?
I learned about it as a sidenote in anthropology classes I was taking as an undergrad. Around the same time, a friend pointed out that drawings I was doing looked like henna… I started doing it on my own IMMEDIATELY! Well, very quickly, anyway; I bought a henna kit (which was disappointing because I bought it from an Indian grocery store, not a professional henna supply outlet), got some books out from the library for more detailed instructions and design inspiration, and got to work!
What motivated you to become a Henna artist? Why?
It’s beautiful! Plus I always drew on myself with sharpies and such anyway…and this was a legit outlet for that desire that was both safe and culturally rich.
Do you own your business?
Yes, Henna By Heather (HennaByHeather.com). I do weddings, private parties, and festivals throughout New England, but especially in and around Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island.
If so, how long?
9 years
Do you need a license?
This depends on your local regulations. The states I work in do not require henna artists to be licensed. Here it is seen to be more similar to face painting (which also doesn’t require licensure) than to tattooing (which does).
On average, what is the approximate salary for someone in your position?
Most henna artists I know can only do henna part-time on the side, and primarily work another job. I am very lucky to be in the position to do this full-time, and I am grateful for it every day.
There are no real figures out there about henna artist average income, and there is *never* a salary. Most henna artists are self-employed, unless they are being exploited on an hourly basis at a theme park or something, making ever so slightly more than minimum wage.
Where and when did Henna begin?
This is a much debated question. You’ll have to look at primary sources with a critical eye if you really have an interest in answering this question well.
This said, the earliest physical evidence we have of henna usage is from ancient Egypt; mummies were found with henna-dyed hair and nails. This is the *only* indisputable fact about henna usage in ancient times that is easy to sum up quickly in a sentence, in my opinion.
There are ancient Syrian (Ugaritic) texts that mention henna, but their interpretation is disputed. Some people say there are Mycenean (Linear B) text that mention henna, but this is probably false (as shown by more careful linguisitic analysis).
Be very careful if you try to answer this question, as most people who traditionally do henna want to believe that henna “belongs” to their culture… and anyone doing research will have their own biases.
I appreciate the ongoing historical research of Noam Sienna when it comes to this question, as he has actually looked into all of the primary sources most people typically cite as evidence of early henna usage. In many cases he has found their interpretations of this evidence to be flawed. He has not yet published this work, as it is still in progress, but when he does, it will be an excellent source for the public to use in answering this question.
Who exactly started Henna?
See above. Please don’t believe what seem like easy answers to this question.
How long has Henna been around?
See above.
Can Henna be use for anything else?
It is a natural plant dye, and is typically used to dye hair, nails, and skin. It dyes natural substances very well, so people also use it to dye natural skin drums, silk, linen, cotton, etc. Recently people have been applying henna to other substances as well – polymer clay, for example.
How long do the tattoos last for?
Henna designs last 1-3 weeks, an average of 10 days.
They aren’t exactly “tattoos”, though – they simply stain the surface of the skin. They aren’t applied subdermally with needles like actual tattoos.
If I were to do my own Henna, how would I do it if I was not artistic?
With very simple patterns that you could manage to draw with you rudimentary artistic skills, or by using stencils. You can also use tattoo transfer paper to draw a design first and then transfer it to your skin to be traced in henna, but this creates a lot of garbage and is pretty environmentally unsound if you are doing a lot of henna.
Your best bet would be to hire a henna artist if you are not artistic…. or to practice practice practice until you get your artistic skills up to snuff.
Describe your favorite day in this career?
Most of my days as a henna artist are great! As I said, I’m very blessed to get to do this full-time. I enjoy the energy of working at big, busy festivals, especially with my family helping. I am artistically satisfied after doing a large, intricate bridal design. I am socially satisfied when I get to interact with my fellow henna artists. I am quite glad I can’t pick out just one favorite day to tell you about!
Do you often change your mind in this career?
I always change my mind about everything. The benefit of working for myself is that as I blossom and change, so can my business.
Besides Henna, do you do anything else for a living?
Not in the last two years, since I became a full-time henna artist. I used to be a high school teacher, then a research fellow and college instructor.
Do you ever have those days where you want to stop Henna? (Why or why not?)
Definitely not. If I have a bad day, I know that the next day is likely to be better, especially if I take appropriate action to remedy whatever went wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.
How long have you been an artist?
My whole life, I’ve always been an artist. But up until two years ago, it always was something I did as a side project, because I thought it was more responsible and respectable to have a career as an academic.
Is there a school to study henna? If so, where?
No. A few artists teach private classes that last between a few hours and a few days, but there are no schools that teach henna. The best way to learn henna is to attend a conference like the Henna Gathering in Providence RI (hennagathering.org). Henna is largely an oral tradition, passed on from person to person. You can learn a lot from books, videos, tutorials, etc, but the best way to learn is to watch a henna artist at work. The skills required to become a professional artist can’t really be taught; you can learn the basics from someone, but it really takes time and lots of practice to achieve mastery.
When creating your art, do you create whatever runs in your imagination or do you pre-sketch everything before hand?
I do a bit of both, depending on what the situation requires. I prefer to work from my imagination, but very often people like to know what is going on their skin ahead of time, so I’ll do a sketch or show them examples of previous drawings I could copy.
Do you own your own shop?
I own ArtisticAdornment.com, an online henna supply store.
It doesn’t make sense for me to have a physical storefont, as most henna work is done at festivals or on-site for private parties and weddings. I do get about 5 calls per week for people asking if I have a shop location they can come to, but mostly they just want $20-50 designs, and it would cost more to maintain a storefront than I would make accommodating these requests.
If I were to become a future Henna Artist, what are some tips?
Study a lot, and practice even more! The first step is to learn to mix your own henna paste from scratch – that is absolutely essential. Come to the Henna Gathering held in Providence, RI at the end of March of each year. Be sure to have a primary job that will compliment you spending your nights and especially weekends doing henna. Being a teacher is a great job to have while pursuing the dream of becoming a henna artist, because you get the summers off, and summers are the busiest time for henna.
How often are you booked for creating henna on customers?
In the busy season, I have an average of five gigs per week (sometimes as many as a dozen), which are a combination of festivals and private bookings. During the slow season, though, it is common to have a week with only one or two gigs, or maybe even none.
Is there a faster way to remove henna?
Use an exfoliating scrub.
Why are some henna darker than others?
Mostly this depends on how the henna has been stored. Henna leaves plucked straight off the plant will leave the darkest stain. Leaves that have been powdered need to be carefully preserved; powdered henna that is kept cold in an airtight container is best in my experience.
Also, growing conditions can influence how much dye is actually in the leaves; a dry climate is better for henna color than a wet climate. Artistic Organic henna (from Rajastahan, India) is the darkest I have found so far – probably due to a combination of excellent growing conditions and great processing and storage.
….that’s it!
